Bodybuilding and fitness blog

Some sound advice here. I do disagree with not using flat shoes. People with a bone structure like myself (long arms, long legs, short torso) tend to lose balance while using certain footwear like running shoes. And I don’t know about you but losing balance with 3 or more plates on a barbell is not the best thing for your spine.

For people built like me, I have found it best to go either barefoot if your gym allows it or wear thin shoes like chuck taylor’s.

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To find out how to build deadlifts into your program for max strength, read “5-3-2 Plan for Insane Strength” in the May issue of FLEX, on newsstands now.

At first glance, deadlifting may seem easy to master. You might think that all you need to do is bend down, grab the bar and stand up. Unfortunately, it’s not so simple. In fact, with that type of approach, you have a better chance of straining your back than growing it. To deadlift productively, several major muscles (spinal erectors, lats, traps, quads, glutes) must work in concert, aiding the lift just enough and at just the right time so that your lower body and upper body lift in perfect harmony. That won’t happen by itself: You need to make it happen. The following dos and don’ts will guide you through proper deadlift form and explain how to best use this crucial lift to supersize back thickness.

DO Use a sturdy weightlifting belt.

DON’T Don’t use a powerlifting suit or shirt; special clothing will make you depend more on momentum than on muscle. Although slim-soled shoes, talcum powder on the thighs and ammonia capsules are all staples of powerlifting, they are unnecessary distractions for bodybuilders.

DO Stand near the barbell with your feet approximately 10″ apart.

DON’T Don’t use the sumo technique (feet far apart, toes pointed outward), as this emphasizes legs, hips and glutes and minimizes back action.

DO Grasp the bar with an alternating grip (one hand overhand, the other underhand), with or without training straps, or use an overhand grip with straps. The space between your hands should be slightly wider than that between your legs.

DON’T Don’t vary your form for your warm-ups and working sets. Always practice flawless technique.

DO Bend your knees, lower your buttocks, keep your back flat and focus on something above and in front of you throughout the lift. Steadily pull the weight off the floor, letting the bar brush against your thighs on the way up.

DON’T Don’t round your back. Instead, keep your back flat and your shoulders tensed throughout.

DO Pull the bar with you as you stand. Your back and legs should work simultaneously throughout the lift.

DON’T Don’t lock out your legs too early. If you do, you’ll be forced to straighten your torso with only back strength – a weak position with a higher probability of failing the lift or straining your back. Your legs should not be straight until your torso becomes perpendicular to the floor.

DO Stand straight or lean back slightly at the completion of the lift and let your shoulders roll back into their natural position. Tense your scapulas.

DON’T Don’t lean too far back at the top, as this is more likely to strain muscles than build them.

DO Return the bar to the floor in a controlled fashion, but not so slowly that you struggle to slow its descent.

DON’T Don’t do deadlifts more than once per week. Too many maximum sessions are counterproductive to back recuperation.

DO Anticipate both being stronger and looking stronger, as deadlifts will thicken your entire back from your glutes to your neck.

I do agree with this article I just want to state that it is important for everyone to experiment with different things to find out what works for you. What works for you may not necessarily work for someone else, and it may not even work for you in the long run.

Different strokes for different folks. But working out 5 days a week is great. You can let your body recover in the weekends.

Lehi Black So one week I will feel the soreness leave too early with no pump so I’ll hit the muscle again during that week. Then I will find that I can do a lot more weight the next week, and then I can only do the one day that week with more weight. I think it’s always changing if your pushing yourself hard enough.

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You’ve had it beaten into your head – at times, by us – that you only need to train bodyparts once or twice per week. But studies show that those who train each muscle group three times per week gain more strength than those who train each bodypart less frequently.

New research from St. Francis Xavier University (Antigonish, Nova Scotia) may have you reconsidering how often you bombard a bodypart. The Canadian scientists had 29 untrained men and women follow a full-body weight-training program for six weeks. Each workout consisted of bench presses, squats, incline dumbbell presses, pulldowns, seated rows, dumbbell shoulder presses, leg extension/leg curl combos, overhead triceps extensions and barbell curls.

Group A performed three sets per exercise and completed the workout twice each week, and group B did two sets per exercise and completed the workout three times each week. Therefore, the two groups performed the same total of sets per muscle group per week.

Both groups increased their squat strength by about 28%; however, group B subjects increased their bench press by 30%, while those in group A increased theirs by only 22%. Group B participants increased their total lean muscle mass by about four pounds; for group A, the increase was only about one pound.

We’re not suggesting that if you currently train each bodypart once per week, you need to switch to three times. After all, these were untrained subjects. However, the fact that the higher frequency led to more muscle mass despite the total sets per week remaining the same suggests you may want to reconsider how often you train. Note that in the ’70s, when Arnold Schwarzenegger was at his peak, it was common for bodybuilders to hit each bodypart up to three times per week.

We suggest that you alter your training frequency occasionally, boosting it to two and even three times per week for at least a month at a time. According to this study, you may be able to keep your total training volume (sets per muscle group) the same whether you’re training once a week or three times. In other words, if you currently train each bodypart once per week with 18 total sets, you can go down to nine sets per workout when you bump your frequency to twice per week, and to six sets per workout if you bump the frequency to three times per week.

I see two ways to avoid the adaptation of the muscle cells to the high level of insulin. The first is in continuous improvement of the quantity and caloric of the intake, causing an even greater increase in its level. The disadvantages of this method are the limited ability of healthy people to overeating, as well as the fact that a large portion of the eaten will be accumulated in the fat depots.
The second way is to hold the periods deadaptation to the high level of insulin or, in other words, the adaptation to the low level of insulin. By lowering the average level of insulin in blood for a long enough periods, the receptors of the muscle cells adapt to the new (lowered) level, which will be perceived as the basic one. Of course, the balance of synthesis and breakdown of the protein structures in the muscle cells will shift towards disintegration. However, as well as the protein synthesis, the decay process is not started unnecessarily.
The need for protein synthesis is the attempt to restore the integrity of the internal environment of the muscle cell. For example, the healing of microtraumas (protein structures of the muscle cells) caused by exercises. For the decay of the protein structures the role of necessity can be given to a strong and long-term lack of blood sugar or the lysis (destruction) of the damaged protein structures during the training. If you avoid microtraumas (protein structures of the muscle cells) during the training and maintain the minimum level of sugar level in blood, then the decay process will not begin. A quite difficult task in the process of reduction of the caloric intake is to maintain the minimum required (so that the body did not begin to use the muscle protein as energy), blood sugar level. It can be solved if the decline is slow and gradual.

Periodization
As it was previously stated, insulin is able to show its pronounced anabolic effect only if the receptors of the muscle cells have not yet adapted to its level. That is, the periods of gaining the muscle mass when the caloric intake is increased, should be followed by the periods of reduced calorie diet and deadaptation to the high level of insulin. The periods of deadaptation can be successfully combined with the “drying” ones as the low carbohydrates diet helps to spend some of the content of the fat depots.
Thus, there can be clearly defined two different alternating periods. One of them is characterized by the increased caloric intake and the muscle mass gain. The other (the period of deadaptation) by the reduced calorie and loss of the body fat deposits.
The beginning of the period of deadaptation can be determined by the speed of the muscle mass gain. A significant slowing or stopping in the growth of the muscle mass with a high calorie diet may indicate the adaptation of the muscle cells to the high level of insulin. In this case, the athlete should decide on the continuation of the increased caloric intake or start the process of deadaptation.
The duration of the process of deadaptation can be estimated by the dynamics of the athlete’s weight and his health. If at the low calorie diet, the weight of the athlete does not change within a few weeks and he does not feel any discomfort, then it must be assumed that the body has adapted to the low level of insulin. If we talk about figures, then I can suppose that the minimum duration of this cycle should be about several months.